St. Cloud Resident Craig Heurung Seeks Ward 4 City Council Seat

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- In this year's election, there is an open seat in St. Cloud's Ward 4. That's the seat currently held by Mike Conway who is running for a different office.

One of the two people who would like to take that seat on the council is Craig Heurung. He's a lifelong resident of St. Cloud who is retired after working for Spee Dee Delivery for 41 years. He spends much of his time now volunteering for places like Quiet Oaks Hospice House and The Joy Christian Center.

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He says he doesn't want to make a lot of promises before getting elected, but he says he does want to listen to what the residents of the 4th ward want.

I'm not a person that's going to be the head bobber type and go along with everything.  Like to put some thought into things, some due diligence and bring some common sense back into the council.

Heurung says decisions have to be made that benefit all the people, not just certain neighborhoods or people.

I'm not sure how much the present city council is actually listening to the needs of the citizens.  From my door knocking, I hear from people that they don't feel their voice is being heard.

When asked about what St. Cloud's strengths are, or what he likes best about St. Cloud, Heurung said that was a 'tough question'.

We have a mall that used to be a regional attraction; unfortunately, that's down to one anchor store. A downtown that at one time was also vibrant, which is fragile at best right now. We've got a university that used to have over 18,000 students, and we're down to a very small fraction of what that used to be.

Heurung says the city's manufacturing sector is also struggling.

Heurung has never run for public office before, but he says he's been on the board of directors at Spee Dee Delivery, on multiple boards for the transportation industry, and he was the president of the St. Cloud Flower and Garden Club for 10 years.

His opponent is Joe Baratta. We'll hear from him in other newscasts Thursday.